


excuse me (do you have a moment?)

by apaixono



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Songfic, alternate title: junmyeon please get it together smh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-25
Updated: 2018-05-25
Packaged: 2019-05-13 14:11:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14750376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apaixono/pseuds/apaixono
Summary: Like all clichés go, Junmyeon falls in love in a coffee shop.





	excuse me (do you have a moment?)

**Author's Note:**

> To the mods, for being such kind souls. This is for you. Thank you, once again <3
> 
> (Self-prompt)

It’s a beautiful Monday morning, a rare gem among its fellow gloom and doom-filled siblings. Spring is finally creeping in, filling the streets with warmth and sunlight, and winter starts its sweet goodbye with soft, chilly winds that make it the perfect weather to bundle up and take a long walk with a hot drink. The foot traffic isn’t bad for the morning rush, with more people leisurely walking than those in a rush. The streets are filled with laughter and chatter and the occasional crunch of boots on snow, and inside the café the soft buzz of conversations blends smoothly with the sound of coffee machines, cutlery, and a jazzy instrumental playing from the speakers. 

All Junmyeon wants is to go home and crawl back under his sheets.

Okay, look. He appreciates the beauty of nature and all that, but he’s _tired_. He slept through all his alarms, had to skip breakfast to be able to take the quickest (and possibly the coldest) shower of his life when he finally woke up, and almost missed the last bus to his campus, only to find out that his professor isn’t coming to class because he was still on vacation in Jeju. On top of that, his next class is a good five hours away, but since he’s too frazzled to go back to sleep, he’s half-asleep, half-dead in the middle of a cozy café nearby that serves cheap coffee blacker than the circles under his eyes. Mondays, honestly.

With another huge yawn, Junmyeon pushes his glasses up his nose and idly flips through his textbook. Might as well be productive, while waiting for the rest of the world to wake up (8AM classes are a bane to everyone’s existence, really) and for the coffee to kick in. He’s not sure how he’ll absorb cognitive personality theories with half of his brain most probably asleep, but at least he tried. Well begun is half done, or something like that. Well, he has his glasses on, his coffee refilled, and all his highlighters scattered on the table. A good start, really—

“Excuse me.”

A low, velvety voice interrupts his internal ramblings, and Junmyeon looks up to see the most beautiful man he has ever met blinking down upon him. His black cap is pulled low over his wide, round eyes, his plush and shiny pink lips pursed and his skin a beautiful gold in the bright morning sunshine. He’s small, but well built, his shoulders narrow but straight and squared, his cheeks soft but his jaw strong. He has a drawing pad clutched to his chest, his fingers smudged with pencil lead. The man is only in a plain black hoodie and dark grey sweatpants but he’s beautiful, so beautiful in his simplicity, and even in the sleepy haze of Junmyeon’s mind he faintly registers the butterflies in his stomach stirring to life.

The man pointedly clears his throat and nudges something with his foot, and Junmyeon snaps out of his reverie to realize that his satchel is blocking the way. Oops. “Oh, sorry,” He mumbles as he quickly hauls it up to the spare chair beside him, cheeks flushing and shame filling his entire being. So much for making a first impression. The man only nods in thanks before moving quietly away, leaving Junmyeon with pink cheeks and a too fast heartbeat that is probably not from the coffee.

Of course he meets the love of his life at a coffee shop, on the day that he looks and feels like roadkill. Only on Mondays.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cute boy—Junmyeon has dubbed him his Coffee Prince—is here again today.

Good news, Junmyeon is less like a zombie and more like a normal exhausted college student today. Bad news, there’s no other table free but the one beside Coffee Prince’s, the one with only one chair (a group of freshmen got the second one, it seems) that is facing the beautiful boy. Even worse news, Junmyeon has a midterm that he is horribly unprepared for, so even if he knows he’ll be super flustered facing Coffee Prince and he’ll be probably distracted, he takes the seat and lays out half a term’s worth of notes on cognitive psychology across the table, determined to absorb them all before his exam after lunch.

Junmyeon’s determination falters just a few moments later when Coffee Prince lets out a soft huff and begins rubbing his eraser on his sketchpad vigorously, obviously miffed. He seems to be drawing today, his table littered with numerous pencils and all kinds of rulers and a few balled up papers. His coffee is untouched, as is the slice of strawberry shortcake beside the large mug. He’s not wearing a cap today, his black hair shaved in a way that makes him look like a chestnut (but a handsome one, nonetheless). His glasses are huge with thick black frames, and are currently dangerously close to sliding down his nose. His hoodie is grey today, plain as usual, and his joggers are black with a white stripe running down the side. He looks even plainer now, but even in his simplicity he is beautiful, and even in his close proximity he seems so far, far away.

Coffee Prince lets out another frustrated sound again as he balls his draft up before burying his face in his pencil-stained hands. Junmyeon wants to go up to him and ask if he’s okay, if he needs help, or if he just wants another warm coffee to help his brain boost up, but somehow all the words die in his throat before he could even form them. He could only watch sadly as Coffee Prince lets out a long sigh before taking out another fresh sheet of paper and begins drawing lines again. Junmyeon hopes he’s okay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today’s a special day! So special that Junmyeon used his milk and honey body scrub (something he saves for a weekend), wore his new faded shirt that he splurged on a whim last week, half-tucked that into nicest (and honestly his last clean pair) of jeans, donned his extra stylish bucket hat, and arrived at the café ten minutes early. Why is he so dressed up on a normal Thursday, you ask? Why did he bother making himself look presentable when he barely cares on other days? Well, hold on to your wigs because today’s the day—the day that he talks to Coffee Prince, that is. And no matter what ‘experts’ say, first impressions _do_ matter, so excuse him for putting more effort in his appearance today than in his report on Greek architecture for a core subject.

Anyway! Junmyeon finishes placing an order for a tall caramel macchiato with an extra shot of espresso—his stylish outfit came at a hefty price of not being able to sleep in, because body scrubs take time—and moves to wait near the claiming counter. He whips out his phone and texts his friend and aforementioned report partner Baekhyun about how awfully unprepared he was later, and if he has a calculator he can borrow for his stat class later that afternoon. Baekhyun is a multiple texter, and so Junmyeon squints at his screen as half-finished replies flood his screen. Really, he thinks as he reaches for the coffee cup that the barista puts in front of him, Baekhyun should know how to text people in one go and—

“Um, excuse me?”

Junmyeon looks up to see Coffee Prince staring at him. He’s in a navy blue sweater today, a pale blue button up tucked neatly underneath, and he looks quite adorable. He also looks a bit confused as he glances at the cup Junmyeon is holding. Junmyeon raises his brows questioningly as he follows the latter’s gaze—only to realize that there is a tea bag label hanging from the lid of the cup.

Oh, no.

“Oh my god, I am so sorry,” Junmyeon says, quickly letting go of the cup before bowing profusely. “Oh god, this is embarrassing, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to get your cup!”

“It’s okay,” Coffee Prince replies in his low, velvety voice, and Junmyeon doesn’t know if he wants to swoon or flee or both. Instead of doing either of those, however, he just simply freezes on his spot as Coffee Prince takes his rightful cup and makes his way towards his table, where his usual sketchbook is lying open. As soon as the latter immerses himself once more into sketching, Junmyeon quickly grabs his cup and hightails the crap out of the café, ears burning with shame.

Well. So much for today being the day he’ll make a stellar first impression and talk to Coffee Prince beyond ‘excuse me.’ He busted out his body scrub and last pair of clean jeans for nothing, because now Coffee Prince probably thinks of him as the Tea Thief or some other weirdo. Good going, Junmyeon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Junmyeon is usually a mild-mannered man, but he is tired, he is running on instant ramen and four hours of sleep, and he has to cram this paper for a major class in about four hours, so pardon his language: _screw_ freshmen, really. 

See, they decided it’ll be cool to push a column of tables together to make a huge makeshift conference table of some sort just so they can chat about _romcoms_. Now, if this is for a literature or media elective, he’ll totally understand. He’ll probably even buy them refills and encourage them like a good sunbae. But no, they’re just ranking romcom leads in the highly scientific measure of fuck, marry, and kill. They’re occupying almost a quarter of the entire café to decide whether killing Heath Ledger is still a huge faux pas (fuck Zac Efron and marry Ryan Reynolds, says a blond freshman who is ironically wearing a Batman sweater). Great. Fantastic, spectacular, amazing, unbelievable. Just what he needed when he needed peace and quiet to cram. Unnecessary noise, large groups of people blocking and the way, and the worst of them all—

—to sit behind his crush.

Yes folks, you heard it right, because as if Junmyeon needed any more distractions, the only table available was behind Coffee Prince’s. To make things worse, their chairs are back to back like some parlor game, because said annoying freshmen pilfered the other chair (again) and moving both the table and the chair will cause such a huge ruckus. So Junmyeon not only has to deal with the kids, but being so damn close to his crush. He’s so close that he can smell Coffee Prince’s shampoo—something tropical, might be mangoes and coconut—and the strong scent of tea whenever the latter takes a sip. He’s so close that he can hear Coffee Prince when he makes a frustrated sound every time he messes up a drawing, or the cutest triumphant sigh every time he perfects a segment of whatever he’s sketching today. He’s so close that he even hears Coffee Prince softly sing along to the catchy café music, his singing voice just as melodic as his speaking voice. And it’s so, so distracting, because he is so close yet so far away. How Junmyeon wishes they could just share a table instead—the freshmen didn’t steal the other chair from Kyungsoo’s table—or how he could just tap him on the shoulder and chat. But he’s too shy, he’s afraid he’ll come off as a creep, and he really does need to finish this paper as soon as possible.

So with a soft sigh, Junmyeon tries his best to focus on his paper, tries his best to ignore his prince charming of a table neighbor, and definitely tries his best not to relate so much to the clichéd romcom tropes that the annoying freshmen are talking about because man is he living a romcom director’s dream right now. All he needs is an upbeat love song, slow-mo post-editing skills, overhead lighting and a huge fan for that wind effect, and a reason for them to turn around and look at each other’s eyes for an awkwardly long time. Except he only has soft jazz, zero film editing knowledge, natural light from the huge window, and faulty heaters. Guess they can have their meet cute next time (sorry, freshmen).

 

 

 

 

 

 

If people in real life have health meters like the ones in video games, Junmyeon’s would probably be only one heart left.

He’s not having a bad day, per se. He’s just... tired. It’s the tail end of the semester, a few weeks before finals week, and everything is draining him. Quizzes here and there, never ending reports and papers, club duties, and not to mention his friends seemingly not running out of energy and always inviting him out. Socializing can be draining, and studying even more so. He’s just very, very tired. He longs for sleep that is longer than five hours, he longs to wake up from naps and not feel guilty about taking them, he longs to spend his breaks in between periods not rushing around finding a good spot to read or type, he longs for days that he doesn’t worry about a billion things at once. He’s still okay, he’s still managing, and he’s confident he’ll get through this semester alive, but forgive him for not being the usual ray of sunshine that he is. Junmyeon bot is running extremely low on battery, and not even coffee can help. But of course here he is, back in the café waiting patiently for his favorite caramel macchiato, because a short-term jolt of energy is better than nothing.

Junmyeon lets out a soft but deep sigh and pulls his jacket closer. It doesn’t help that it’s really chilly today, and he hates the cold. It makes him want to curl up under his thick blankets and binge watch superhero movies, but with each gust of icy wind he is reminded that he doesn’t have time for that. Mumbling softly to excuse himself as he maneuvers through the small group of what looks like law students also waiting for their orders, he takes his coffee—and yes, he made sure it’s really his—and revels in the warmth that spreads across his fingertips. He should really invest in heat packs, he thinks to himself as he pads towards the condiment counter to add a dash of milk and brown sugar to his drink. He knows it’s already milky and sweet, but he’s _tired_ , okay? Cut him some slack.

An equally cold hand brushes against his as he reaches for the milk thermos, and Junmyeon jumps a bit at the contact before looking up. Well, what do you know. It’s Coffee Prince, looking quite cozy in an olive green bomber jacket over a white shirt. His black cap is pulled low again, but Junmyeon still manages to see his wide eyes turn even rounder as he flinches back, surprised that someone else was reaching for the thermos. He kind of looks like a puppy caught in the act—or a penguin. Yeah, definitely a penguin. _Cute_.

“Go ahead,” Junmyeon says, gesturing to the milk jug. He’s in no rush for once, a brief reprieve from his hectic life, but the latter seems a bit frazzled. A deadline, maybe. He felt that. Relatable content. Retweet, like, quote tweet with “ugh same.”

To his surprise, Coffee Prince smiles at him and inclines his head in a grateful bow before pouring milk inside his mug. It smells like tea and honey. Maybe Coffee Prince should be renamed Tea Prince. “Thank you,” He says in that sweet, deep voice of his as he hands over the jug, his smile small but warm. His lips form a small heart, and his eyes crinkle a little as he smiles. _Cute_. “Good luck with finals.”

“Oh, uh, thanks! You too!” He stutters back, and Coffee Prince bows at him again before making his way back to his table, his mug cradled carefully in his cold yet elegant hands. Junmyeon is so flustered that he pours the milk all over the counter instead of his cup. He yelps and quickly mops it with tissue, but as he throws them away he sees Coffee Prince chuckle at him from the corner of his eye, his lovely smile back on that lovely face. And even though Junmyeon embarrassed himself in front of him, _again_ , something about being the reason for that beautiful smile to bloom on the latter’s usually stoic face warms Junmyeon up more than the coffee, and he finds himself smiling even long after he has left the café.

Maybe today isn’t so bad after all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coffee Prince is missing.

No, not literally, but kind of? Somehow? Because Junmyeon arrives at the café, and Coffee Prince is not there. He should be there, because it’s a Tuesday and on Tuesdays, he’s always reading rather than drawing. On Tuesdays he wears button downs and plain sweaters and boring pants and leather shoes, not his usual hoodies and joggers and sneakers in monochrome. On Tuesdays he orders lunch rather than just a drink, sometimes a sandwich and sometimes pasta. It’s lunchtime on a Tuesday, and Coffee Prince is nowhere to be found. His usual table is empty—the only available one in the café.

Junmyeon’s heart sinks as he sits down on the table that always cradled his crush in a throne of white loopy wires and a powder blue floral pillow. Except now.

Maybe...maybe Coffee Prince found a better café. Maybe he found a better place to finish his sketches, maybe he found better coffee and more exotic teas, maybe he found a better restaurant with better sandwiches as pasta, maybe he found a better patisserie with better cakes and pastries even though he never finds the time to eat the ones he orders. Did he just leave without another word? He left before Junmyeon could say hello or maybe introduce himself. He left before they could hold a conversation that doesn’t involve Junmyeon embarrassing himself. He left before they could check all the clichés of café AU fanfiction that Junmyeon admittedly reads in his free time. Now who will be Junmyeon’s coffee prince, his inspiration, the one who can make his heart beat faster than the coffee he all but chugs in an attempt to feel fractionally more alive? Who will be the spot of black in the otherwise pastel interior, hunched over the table with a pencil and a ruler, drawing and sketching and shading without minding the raucous world around him? Who will steal the milk jug from him, distract him from studying with his mango shampoo, and tell him off politely when he grabs the wrong drink? Who will—

“Um, excuse me?”

Junmyeon snaps out of his self-pitying and honestly lowkey corny monologue of longing and loss (really?) and looks up to see who dared bother someone who is obviously brooding. He’s literally stabbing his ziti with his fork for heaven’s sake. Can’t this guy take a damn hint or—

Coffee Prince bows apologetically at him, and Junmyeon bot short circuits. “I’m sorry to be a bother, but is it okay if I share your table?” He asks, his usually smooth and velvety speech slightly hesitant as he clutches a mug of what is probably tea in both his hands. “I know you’re busy, but there’s no other seat available and I have to get some reading done.”

 _I’m never too busy for you_ , Junmyeon thinks to himself, still gaping at the latter like a fool. A lovestruck, love drunk fool.

“I’m sorry?"

Holy shit, he said that out loud. “I mean, uh, sure, no problem.” Junmyeon quickly moves his (unopened) textbook and his bowl of half-murdered ziti so Coffee Prince can settle in. He’s wearing a dark blue button up today, and it compliments his tan really well. Junmyeon will have a _lot_ of trouble not staring.

“Thank you, again. I hope I wouldn’t be a bother to your meal,” Coffee Prince says as he pulls out his own textbook from his bag. It says History of Architecture in big blockish font at the cover, so he must be an architecture major. That explains the drawings. “Although, I don’t mean to be meddlesome, but their ziti...isn’t the best.”

‘Isn’t the best’ isn’t also the best way to describe it—it’s downright shitty. The pasta is gummy, the marinara sauce is runny, and there are like five pieces of mushrooms. He really regrets getting it. “I learned that the hard way,” Junmyeon replies, smiling ruefully as he goes back to stabbing his lunch. “I uh, haven’t really tried it before. Thought it would be a nice change to my usual panini. Nope.”

“Ah, their paninis are great. Their cheesesteak is my favorite.” Coffee Prince beams, and his cheeks plump up in the cutest way possible. Junmyeon isn’t sure how he’s not melting right now. “Yours too, if I remember correctly?”

“Yeah, I like the provolone and—“ He stops mid-sentence as soon as his brain catches up with Coffee Prince’s words. _If he remembers correctly_. Does that mean...? “You...know me?”

“Well, kind of. You’re almost in this café as often as I am.” Coffee Prince explains, blowing on his mug of tea to cool it a little. “Plus you kind of, um. Blunder a lot. It’s hard not to notice you, really.”

Great. So his longtime crush knows him, not because of fate or whatever, but because he’s a huge klutz. Fantastic. So much for a great first impression. “Yeah, um. Sorry about that, I get uh, frazzled a lot.” Junmyeon mumbles sheepishly, hiding behind his own mug of coffee. Maybe he can drown himself in his caramel macchiato to avoid this embarrassment.

“Ah, don’t be sorry, it’s fine. We can’t always be proper adults.” Coffee Prince shrugs, still smiling. It’s not his heart-shaped one, but this closed-lip one makes him look younger, chubbier. “Besides, I found it cute, so it’s no big deal." 

RIP Junmyeon. Cause of death: one smooth talker of a café crush.

“O-oh.” He can barely say a word out, too flustered to speak. He can feel his cheeks and ears turn even warmer, and Coffee Prince’s smile grows wider at the sight. “Um. Thank you? I uh, find you really cute too?”

“Thank you. I think.” Coffee Prince chuckles before extending a hand. “My name’s Kyungsoo, by the way. Doh Kyungsoo. Second year architecture major, in case the pencils and sketches weren’t a giveaway.”

Junmyeon takes Coffee Prince’s—no, _Kyungsoo’s_ hand and shakes it. His hands are cold, but soft. “Kim Junmyeon, third year psychology.”

“Ah. Junmyeon hyung, then. Nice to finally meet you.” Kyungsoo grins, and hello, there’s the heart-shaped smile that Junmyeon has learned to love. “So hyung, do you have a moment to spare so we can get to know each other, or...?”

Junmyeon really doesn’t, considering the amount of work that he still has to do. He has to read a total of three chapters for his classes today, he has to write the outline of this paper due in two days, and he still has to wrap up his report for his basic philosophy class tomorrow. But right now, his longtime crush, the one who he was pining over for almost the entire semester, just asked if they can get to know each other. Who was he to say no? And who’s to say this opportunity will come again in the future? Maybe, just for today, he can slack off a bit. Maybe today, he can put aside reality and live his dream of a clichéd romcom featuring a meet cute in a café, a shared table, contrasting drinks (tea and coffee, and one is always with milk and sugar while one is pure and bitter), and maybe even casual touches and shy smiles and covert glances. He’s worked hard for the past few weeks. He can spare a moment or two—and if it’s for Kyungsoo, maybe even all the time in the world.

“Yeah, of course.” Junmyeon smiles back, and his heart feels light with the promise of something beautiful slowly blooming between them. “I’ve got all day.”


End file.
